Nissan X-Trail - long-term review

The X-Trail has been up against it, and through no fault of its own. The other day, when I was driving around the M25 on the way back from another of my children’s sporting events, I heard an almighty loud bang. At first, I thought it was one of the kids popping open a bag of crisps, but it soon transpired it was something much more concerning.

The whole thing happened in slow motion. It took a few seconds to decipher before it became obvious – a huge stone had smacked into the windscreen. It was large enough to make a decent size dent in the screen with cracks soon appearing on both sides of it.

It didn’t take a genius to realise the Nissan was going to need a new screen. It wasn’t the hole that was the problem, it was one of the cracks that eventually spread across the whole window. A quick call to Autoglass and I managed to book it in a few days later – as we all know, any crack longer than 7cm immediately requires a replacement.

While I’d hoped Autoglass would be able to come to me (I’ve seen the TV adverts too) it turned out it needed to go in to one of their garages due to all the sensors and gadgetry disturbed by swapping out the front glass. I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say that the whole process took two and a half hours.

I asked the Autoglass technician if I hadn’t been claiming on the insurance what the damage would have been, and he reckoned about £1,000 all in. So, my top tip for you all is this: when you’re asked by your insurance company if you want to add windscreen cover, I’d say yes, because it might save you thousands.

Next time out I’ll get around to talking about how the X-Trail drives... after it’s had a service.